Vanda Orchid
Vanda coerulea
- Common Name: Vanda Orchid
- Scientific Name: Vanda coerulea
- Family Name: Orchidaceae
- Origin: Australia and Eastern Asia, including India, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea, southern China
- Height: Some are tiny, can fit in the palm of your hand, whereas others can grow up to 6’ tall.
- Width:
- Growth: fast
- Zone: 9 - 11
- Light Needs: Full sun to Partial (25 – 35% bright filtered light)
- Salt Tolerance: unknown
- Soil/PH/Texture: you can use sphagnum moss and orchid media, but they prefer to grow in slotted baskets, where their roots are free to dangle toward the ground but need more water, very different as they do not grow as well in traditional orchid plant media like fir bark and charcoal.. Fertilize with a liquid-based, weak fertilizer weekly because they are heavy feeders.
- Soil Moisture: In high heat they should be watered twice a day, first soak the plant until the white or silvery roots turn color, wait a few minutes and then water the plant again. Unlike other orchids, they do not have pseudobulbs, their water is retained in their leaves which is why they need to be watered more frequently.
- Drought Tolerance: low - none
- Pests/Diseases: most common diseases are foliar blights, leaf spots, fungal rots, and flower blights.
- Growing Conditions: easy to grow and low maintenance
- Characteristics: Vandaceous orchids are all monopodials, have a single stem and growing point at crown, or the tip, of the plant, upright in habit, and the main stem may have lateral buds which can develop into plantlets (“keikis”) when the plant has grown enough to support them. Vandas will bloom multiple flowers throughout the year, can have up to 15 flowers per stem, depending on their growing conditions, the showy blooms which appear at the end of its spikes can last more than 8 weeks in colors of hot blue, purple, pink, red, or mottled, and have a powerful fragrance.
- Propagation: by cutting of a tip of the plant that has aerial roots
- Wildlife: attracts birds, bees, and butterflies
- Facts: unknown
- Designer Considerations: use as a hanging plant, grown in a tree or mounted, or grow in a pot.